Mine reopening came too late
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• A proposed reopening of Cornwall's last tin mine has come too late for one of the main hauliers who used to work out of it.
Baseresult, the company paying £1.2m for South Crafty near Camborne, wants to import 200,000 tonnes of power-station waste every year. This would be mixed with left-over slurry from tin processing and then pumped into underground workings.
The reopening process will create work for hauliers carrying material into, rather than out of, the site.
But Robert Barnard, the main haulage contractor at South Crofty until it closed in March 1998, has now ceased operations. "I finished trading on 21 July this year," he says. "Diesel became so expensive."
Technical director David Stone says the operation should begin within the next two years. "Basically, we need a carrier with a waste carrying licence and suitable containers to do that," he explains.
Stone predicts that in the long-term, the bulk of the waste will be carried by rail but there will always be an element of road transport for power plants lacking rail access. He adds that the mine has a forecast life of between 17 and 40 years.